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Pew Pew Pew

Taiwan announces two arms procurement deals with U.S.

https://focustaiwan.tw/politics/202106170010?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rsscna%2Fengnews+%28Latest+%7C+FOCUS+TAIWAN+-+CNA+ENGLISH+NEWS%29

Taipei, June 17 (CNA) The Ministry of National Defense (MND) on Thursday announced that Taiwan has signed two arms procurement contracts with the United States, buying two weapon systems that boost the nation's defense capabilities.

The contracts were signed between the nation's Defense Mission in the U.S. and the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) which handles relations with Taiwan on behalf of the U.S. government in the absence of official diplomatic ties, according to the MND in a public announcement posted online.

The ministry did not make public details of the two arm sale packages, saying only that one is "a long-range precision fire system" and another "a batch of missiles," nor did it say when the deals were signed.

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Biscuits and what's for dinner

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Hot, so a deli sandwich

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Make that frog legs with Dutch Crunch with everything on it, extra mayo.

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A hearty salad

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Biscuits and sausage gravy and the question that asks why everything so good has to be so bad

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Marsala chicken, except I make it with shitake and maitake mushrooms. One pan. Apart from needing to pound the chicken (literally, not figuratively), it's super easy, clean, and tasty. Chicken, ghee, minced onion, mushroom, salt, peppers, baking soda and medium-low heat to get the perfect Maillard reaction. Deglaze with marsala. Slice and put it on top of a nest of Hong Kong egg noodles.

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High Quality Quote: "Apart from needing to pound the chicken (literally, not figuratively),"

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There was a deli in Brookline MA called Jaffe's Pick a Chick. Where presumably you go in a pick out a chicken. My housemate liked to say You pick a chick, I'll take her home.

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I don't know about dinner, but I just went to a local French bakery run by actual French people for a couple of baguettes and pastries, so lunch is taken care of.

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that seems like a great idea. i might do the same

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I ate an entire baguette with ham and butter. My only regret is that I had to jump on conference calls rather than take a nap

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The jambon buerre is quite possibly the best sandwich on earth.

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It's fine, but the best? There are so many other tasty candidates.

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yes the best

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It really is. The ham was merely okay but the butter was from some independent dairy in Vermont and it made all the difference.

I had one sandwich and decided to immediately make another. I did have to pause and think about whether to put some cornichons on the second one, but then decided to wait for another day

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In fact, I'm having a ham sandwich for lunch, but red onions, cherry tomatoes, provolone, calabrese & mustard are joining the party.

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DBD Workout Lab

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today, Soul Cycle - at home

tomorrow, Soul Cycle - in person, but still outside.

NYC studios are reopening indoor riding in the next few weeks now that "all restrictions" have been lifted.

still cant get up and "run out of the saddle" for any extended amount of time, but at least it is getting better.

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Also going to spin tomorrow (the studio is called Spinback Fitness) - going to see if I can hit 400 kcal burned

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how long is class?

perhaps it is a function of my weight, but i get 600-800 kcal in 45 min class.

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50 minutes. I have a pretty crappy FTP.

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also to be fair, i go to the hardest and most evil instructor in the SoulCycle lineup.

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DBD Test Kitchen

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Made deviled eggs last night for Mrs meeting today (they always bring snacks, it's an elementary school teacher thing).

The first batch of eggs didn't get boiled hard first, just simmered, and did not hard cook. So, had to redo them with new eggs. Came out pretty well. didn't do anything fancy with the mix (yolks, mustard, mayo, juice from a pickle jar, salt, pepper, garlic)

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DBD AV Club

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Really enjoyed episode 2 of Loki

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Maybe I was just in a different mood than when I watched episode 1, but I really enjoyed E1 and thought E2 was too slow until the end.

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A lot of it is just the Wilson/Hiddleston chemistry

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Which is awesome!

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Oh Yeah! (Duffman voice)

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my daughter, now 17, sent me a TikTok video referencing one of our favorite childhood cartoons, Wow Wow Wubbzy.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMdrJhSeS/

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Our Crumbling Democracy

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Juneteenth

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Discovered yesterday that I have today off.

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ok do election day next.

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I think I heard that it's part of Manchin's voter proposal.

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<<Burns-excellent.gif>>

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US Rep candidate threatens assassination of his rival in GOP primaries for FL-13 district.

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/17/secret-recording-florida-republican-threat-hit-squad-494976

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So, so Florida

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and he'll get all the votes...

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Alex Jones is a batshit crazy, bloated liar. But if any of this is remotely true, it's a whole other level of illegal.

https://www.politicususa.com/2021/06/16/conspiracy-theorist-alex-jones-said-he-collaborated-with-both-donald-trump-and-the-secret-service-on-january-6th.html

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Jones is crazy AF but Biden also replaced most, if not all, of the Secret Service so...

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There were rumblings that the core Secret Service around Trump were all chosen for being politically reliable to him, so I'd get rid of them all too, were I Biden.

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I'm not sure that's true. My buddy is Sec. Serv., including Clinton, Bush, Obama, DJT, and now Biden administrations. They work as a team/pool that rotates on and off various details. Sometimes you get close body protection of the President, sometimes you're escorting an empty car down for the daughter-in-law. It's not predictable and you wouldn't want it to be otherwise it is a security weakness.

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well, there were also rumors that a Secret Service member was shagging Tiffany, so I'm not putting too much stock in it. Like most rumors, the ones that have legs are the ones that are at least slightly plausible, and law enforcement has its share of reactionaries at all levels - not your buddy, I am certain, but Dan Bongino didn't come from nowhere.

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US Rep Andrew Clyde (R-GA9) refuses to shake the hand of a USCPD officer who defended him on 1/6.

https://twitter.com/RepSwalwell/status/1405244468568145921?s=20

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Joe Manchin (D?-WV) dictates his terms to DEMs. DEMs agree.

https://twitter.com/JohnJHarwood/status/1405506662224613379

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JFC. What a bunch of clowns. And it's happening in broad daylight.

https://twitter.com/AC360/status/1405329769433022466

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Montana? Does that mean a certain former DBDer is involved now? Or is he in Wyoming.

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I think I heard Wyoming.

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near Cody WY

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damn going from living in SF and LA to some small town in Wy.

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Trump confused why Jewish-Americans didn't love him despite him pandering to all the hot buttons of Israel. The answer to him is simple, they hate Israel and it's not because he's a third-rate tyrant.

https://twitter.com/jacobkornbluh/status/1405350741909327872

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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men*** are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

*** - except THOSE types we want to discriminate against

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/17/996670391/supreme-court-rules-for-a-catholic-group-in-a-case-involving-gay-rights-foster-c

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I say this as a Catholic myself -- we have way too many Catholics on the Supreme Court.

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refusing services for LGBT persons should also mean if anyone else is in a state of sin, they should also be refused services.

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Today in Covid 19

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Trump rails against Covid vaccines for ‘very young people’

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/16/trump-rails-against-covid-vaccines-for-very-young-people-494975

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My twenty-something nephew still will not get vaccinated.

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make him wear a mask every time he visits.

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Just don't let him visit.

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My mom has prohibited him from visiting her house and she will no longer speak to him. I am still speaking with him, but he is unwelcome at my house. My sister (his mother) has tried everything she can think of.

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Children should be allowed to drink and drive because mortality rates from DWI are much, much, much lower than adults.

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Pro

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NBA

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The Dallas Mavs are in shambles.

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[The Atlantic]: Zion wants out of Nawlins

https://twitter.com/TheNBACentral/status/1405551657811861514

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Already?

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Clippers beat the Jazz 119-111. Can't believe the Jazz didn't win with the Clippers being without Kawhi. Hmm...their coach goes to the 76ers and they win a crucial game...

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Hawks come back to beat the 76ers 109-106

No 1 and I were at the gym and both watching something on my phone and glancing up on the TV. With about 9 min left in the 4th I turned the show on my phone off and watched this game. Can't believe the Hawks came back.

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That second half was brutal for the 76ers. I think Curry and Embiid were the only players in that half with a field goal. That arena was a mausoleum in the 4th...

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They blew big leads two games in a row. Pretty amazing.

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Heh...76ers may blow it like the Clippers did last year. Hmm...common thread?

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See Cal for MLB

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Other College

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RIP ASU

https://sports.yahoo.com/sources-ncaa-investigating-arizona-state-football-for-recruiting-violations-194707554.html

Earlier this month, an anonymous person sent a dossier of dozens of pages to the Arizona State athletic department. It included screenshots, receipts, pictures and emails related to numerous potential violations within Arizona State’s football program, according to sources.

The NCAA enforcement staff is in possession of those documents, sources told Yahoo Sports. Among the enforcement staff members working on the case is Vic DeNardi, an assistant director of enforcement. And the arrival of those documents to Arizona State compliance chief Steve Webb has ASU officials conducting internal interviews. (The NCAA declined comment.)

Arizona State vice president for media relations Katie Paquet confirmed the NCAA investigation to Yahoo Sports, which was first reported by The Athletic. She declined further comment on specific allegations.

The documentation includes specific evidence of multiple examples of high school prospects taking illicit on-campus recruiting trips to the Arizona State campus. Those came during the pandemic-inspired dead period that ended June 1. For more than a year prior, NCAA rules explicitly banned players from visiting on campus because of COVID-19. The dossier, according to sources, lays out pieces of both the players' trips to campus and how those trips were paid for.

Sources said members of the football program deliberately, blatantly and consistently broke rules related to hosting players during the dead period, including coach Herm Edwards meeting with recruits. A source added that the evidence included pictures of the visits, including Edwards with a recruit who ended up enrolling at ASU. “It’s clear whoever provided it had a ton of access and knowledge of the football program,” a source told Yahoo Sports. “The stuff in there wouldn’t be provided by anyone outside the football program.”

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Maybe it's just Herm wanting to get out of Tempe.

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Sounds like it might've mostly been Antonio Pierce getting too much power and running amok

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Hopefully Cal is not involved in anything of this sort.

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The calls are coming from inside the house...

Multiple former staff members told Yahoo Sports they’d be happy to speak to the NCAA, an unusual stance in a football culture that frowns on anyone speaking to the NCAA. It speaks to how divided the staff at ASU became.

“People are crossing their fingers, hoping they can talk to the NCAA,” one former staffer said. “There’s not going to be a lot of holding back — video guys, trainers, equipment guys. You’re going to find people very willing to talk. It’s because (Pierce and his followers) were not nice to the people who are good people. Some people were on board. Some weren’t. If you weren’t on board, you got blackballed.”

Multiple former staffers said that the dozens of recruits who came on campus during the dead period should be easy to track by going through the ASU football building and the surrounding area’s security cameras.

It wasn’t uncommon for Edwards and multiple coaches to host recruits in his office. As the amount of illicit activity rose, tensions simmered in the office. Coaches said that hosting recruits would have been too common to get security officials to agree to shut the cameras off every time a recruit came into the building during a dead period.

“The people who walked the straight and narrow were forced out,” said another former staffer. “The culture that had been festering there had been able to bloom full go. I’m not surprised to hear this.”

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this didnt age well https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dlmxhy0U0AEXBUe.jpg

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Herm forgot that when playing to win the game one also has to follow the rules.

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No shit.

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this doesnt even mention the alleged payments to players which apparently is pretty damning in and of itself

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Cal

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CAA said that the average unweighted GPA of this incoming fall class was 3.9.

I wouldn't have made the cut.

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I checked my SAT/GPA against the current students, I'm at like 35th percentile. When I got in and attended I was 78th. There's a slim chance I could have gotten in now, but I wouldn't bet on it, whereas I was pretty ready to attend Cal/UCLA when I was in high school.

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lets just say there has been some grade inflation to make ourselves feel better about it

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grading is much easier than when we were young. No way I would've gotten in.

Not after bad grades with Miss Danielli's Spanish class. get off my lawn new students.

No 2 had all A's and a 36 ACT and still didn't get in. Also applied to EECS so that probably had something to do with it.

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Game #70: Sweep! Scorching A’s rally back to beat Angels 8-4

https://www.athleticsnation.com/2021/6/16/22537647/oakland-as-game-70-los-angeles-angels-score-result

The Oakland A’s were already hot enough, winning 11 of their first 13 games since the beginning of June. Then they added Ramon Laureano back to their lineup and dialed things up yet another notch.

The A’s fell behind early but rallied back with six runs in the 6th inning to stun the Los Angeles Angels in an 8-4 victory Wednesday, completing a three-game sweep at the Coliseum. In Laureano’s return from the injured list, the center fielder robbed a homer at the wall and then hit one of his own at the plate.

For the first couple innings, this looked like it might be an afternoon finale snoozer. The A’s had won the first two night games of the series, but the Halos blitzed them under the midday sun and took a sizable early lead.

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presumably you meant to put this in Pro, not Cal

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dammit I did it again.

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I made you believe we're more than just friends

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Giants hit so many freaking home runs

https://www.mccoveychronicles.com/2021/6/16/22537855/san-francisco-giants-diamondbacks-home-runs

Thanking you for spending your Wednesday night dining at the San Francisco Giants new critically-acclaimed restaurant, Dinger Delight.

My name is Brady and I’ll be your host for the evening as we walk through this five-course home run meal of expertly-crafted locale fare.

Our amuse-bouche tonight is the Giants giving up two first-inning runs to the Arizona Diamondbacks. This small bite should leave a delightfully bitter taste in your mouth, which adjusts your palate and sets you up for the rest of the meal.

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They just hit #100 to lead the NL...power hitter du jour Curt F&^%$&*&-ing Casali gets into a 3-2 fastball on the outer third and crushed it to deep left center...

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some even year 20s decade bullshit.

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The snippet encouraged me to read the whole article. Quite entertaining!

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Dodgers shut out for the first time in 140 games

https://www.truebluela.com/2021/6/16/22537903/dodgers-offense-shutout-streak-over-zack-wheeler-clayton-kershaw-phillies-recap

Zack Wheeler proved too much for the Dodgers to handle, dropping the series finale to the Phillies, 2-0 on Wednesday night at Dodger Stadium. The loss snapped a franchise-record streak of 139 games without the Dodgers being shutout. The last time they didn’t score a run was September 14, 2019.

The Dodgers got two runners on all three odd innings, and worked four walks on the night against Wheeler, who entered the game with only six total walks in his last seven starts.

But Wheeler kept up his recent run prevention prowess, holding the Dodgers to 0-for-6 with runners in scoring position while allowing no runs to score in his six innings. Wheeler in his last eight starts has a 1.25 ERA with 77 strikeouts.

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I caught the first few innings before bed. Seemed like a real big strike zone. There were lots of pitches that didn't even touch the box called strikes.

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Mookie's AB in the top of the 9th had two strikes called on balls that were at least 1 ball width outside. And it wasn't like they were sliders that were in the zone the whole way until the end, they were two seamers. The strike zone this season has been horrendous.

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Go Bears!!!

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Cal gets commitment from 6-2 300 lb College of San Mateo defensive lineman Darius Long...

Since it seems like the loss of Brett Johnson was going to be a problem, Cal picked up beefy DL who can step in right away...

https://twitter.com/Dooneeey

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